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Scott Lebin is not a fan of the word
“retirement.” To the 71-year-old
president of Lebin Financial Planning
in Geneva, Ill., the term too
often suggests “that we stop doing,
we stop living and just kick up our
feet. I think that’s a faulty premise.”

Lebin has been an advisor for nearly 30 years.
He taught high school for 21 years before that. And
although some in his position would be eyeing the
door at this point, he remains fully committed.
“I love what I’m doing,” he says. “I’ve loved the
practice of financial planning for the last 28 years
and I don’t see it as work. I plan on doing this for
the next 10 years, because I’m fortunate enough
to enjoy what I’m doing.”

The shift toward longevity

While Lebin’s views on the concept of retirement
are partly philosophical, they also contain a practical
component. “I tell clients that the longer we
work, the less saved money we need to have in
order to account for longevity,” he says.
The concept of retirement sprung up in the
wake of WWII, he notes, when older workers
were encouraged to leave the workforce in order
to create jobs for soldiers returning home. But
much has changed in the intervening years.
“[Longevity] wasn’t as significant a problem
then, because if you were 65, you planned
on living 5 to 7 more years, and then you
were going to be gone. People didn’t live much
past 72. Now, I tell every client that I’m planning
for them to live until 100.”

His clients often question this approach, Lebin
concedes. “They’ll say, ‘But my dad died young,
or my mom died young.’ I ask them, ‘Well, what
kind of medicine did your mom and dad have?
Did they have open heart surgery then? Did they
have cholesterol medication then? Did they even
look at cholesterol then?’ We’re living in different
times and your potential to live longer due to
modern medicine is huge. It’s just huge.”

One step at a time

When clients first come into his office, Lebin says
they are often overwhelmed. They tell him, “This
is so confusing to me. I see this on television; I
hear this on the radio; I read this on the Internet. I
don’t know what to do.” Lebin asks them to take a
deep breath and slow down. “It’s not that complex,”
he assures them. “We’re going to be here to
assist you. Let’s talk through this.”

Early in his career, advisors were taught to create
fear in clients in order to motivate them, but
Lebin says that’s no longer the case. “We’re now
trying to create a sense of calm, a sense of logic
and understanding, so they can make their own
decisions.”
Advisors should never recommend something
that their clients can’t understand, he says. “It’s
their money and it shouldn’t be a case of ‘he told
me to do it.’ I see it as a partnership between us,
and I don’t want to be responsible for them saying,
‘Well, you told me I didn’t have to understand.
That you know all.’ Because I don’t know all.”

He cautions against arrogance and recommends
that advisors remain “very humble about the privilege we have
of working with people.” The fact that they are willing to share
their assets and let advisors help manage their money is “a
tremendous responsibility that they’re giving us,” Lebin says.
“Unfortunately, some people in our profession have not taken
that very seriously, but I would say that the majority of us do.”

A big part of that responsibility lies in helping clients understand
that everything can change in a moment, Lebin says. “You
can walk into a doctor’s appointment and your whole world is
upside down by the time you leave. You can go out in your car
and 10 minutes later, someone hits you and nothing’s ever the
same. But we look at it very positively. We try to create peace of
mind by going through all those things that might happen so
we’re prepared for them.”

A lifelong journey

Before becoming a financial planner, Lebin taught theater, communication
and English, all part of what he describes as “a progression
of lifelong learning.” Among other things, he says his
time as a high school teacher helped him learn to meet deadlines
and approach relationships more creatively. “You have to deal
with a lot of different personalities, and you quickly come to understand
that there’s no one right answer for anything. You have
to accept people for who they are and try to get them to the next
stage. And that takes a lot of questioning and introspection.”

At Lebin’s practice, he continually asks clients questions in
an effort to discover “how and why they formed the opinions,
attitudes and lifestyles that they have.” No matter what they
uncover, Lebin says he focuses on the positive. “We are where
we are, and there’s no right or wrong,” he says. “This is the
journey we’ve been on. What can we do now that will help you
accomplish your goals? On the last day of your life as you look
back, what would you like to have accomplished that you haven’t
already done? What would you like to have people say about you
and the way you’ve lived your life?”
Relationships that last

Many of Lebin’s clients have been with him for decades.
Together, they’ve experienced life’s many ups and downs. And
as happens in any long-term relationship, he’s watched them
change with the passage of years. “They’re much more vulnerable
now than they were when they were younger. They often
feel freer, because they’ve allowed themselves to become more
open to other ideas, to other ways of looking at things. A lot of
them have mellowed as they’ve gotten older.”

Lebin thinks Americans need to discover ways to “use the talents
and the wisdom of the senior population to have dynamic
interchange with younger and middle-aged people growing up
and set some role model standards for them. I think that’s very important."

While many cultures value the wisdom of seniors and consider
them as a vital part of the family and community, Lebin
says the U.S. has too often pushed them aside, “because we need
to have stuff for the younger people to do.”

He recalls that his grandmother, who lived to age 100, “always
seemed so far ahead of her time. She had just seen so much in
life, and she came to realize that many things that happen are
not as important as we all think. We often take ourselves too
seriously. Seniors understand everything in the perspective of a
long life.”

Working with seniors

Advisors who work with older clients must slow down and take
the time to listen, according to Lebin. “You’ve got to remember
that their families are busy. They don’t sit there and spend a
lot of time listening to them. I think when they come in to us,
it’s an opportunity for us to give them a chance to voice their
concerns, to know they’re being listened to and that we understand.”

Lebin also stresses the importance of valuing seniors’ opinions
and helping them find their comfort zone. As an example,
he says his father, who grew up during the Great Depression,
always needed a significant amount of cash on
hand for his own peace of mind. “He put very little of his
money into the market,” Lebin says. "And I never tried to
change his way of thinking about it, but accepted him for
what he had gone through. And he did fine. You can’t say,
‘No, you’re wrong. This is a different time.’ Because for
him, that was his life lesson and you couldn’t change it.
You had figure out how to work with his own history and
where he came from. And I think that’s true of all of us.”
A matter of perspective

Lebin and Bobbi, his wife of 49 years, travel frequently.
They recently went on a six-week cruise, visiting nine
countries, including China, Japan, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
“It was magnificent because you realize that in this world,
there’s such an extreme between the haves and the have-nots,”
he says. “And even the have-nots still have smiles
on their faces. They still play games. We have to be careful
of categorizing things as good and bad. It’s just different,
that’s all.”

In recent years, Lebin has found himself increasingly
drawn to photography and has documented his travels
with thousands of photos. He says people sometimes
tell him that he doesn’t get to see as much because he’s
always taking pictures. He views it another way. “You see
things that other people never see, because you’re looking
from a different perspective. You see details and
patterns. You see facial expression and families
with little children. It’s a miraculous thing when you
come back and it reminds you of what you really captured
there.”

Keep living

Over the years, Lebin has learned the importance of staying
engaged in life and “giving back to other people, to our
communities, to the charities we work with. I tell younger
people, when you donate your time and money, you will
find that good things will happen to you. Don’t always
expect an immediate pay-off in terms of dollars or cents.”

During his recent trip to China, Lebin’s eye was continually
drawn to a fellow member of his tour group. “She
climbed the Great Wall; she was doing anything anybody
else did and she was 88 years of age. Tiny little lady, just
going full bore. I looked at that and said, as long as you’re
breathing, you keep living.”

About the Author

Paul Wilson is the managing editor of ProducersWEB.com and Retirement Advisor magazine. He lives with his wife and two sons in Denver and can be reached at pwilson@summitpronets.com or on Twitter at @paulwatpweb. Please contact him if you would like to submit content or if you have any other ques... More